No Happy Endings
by Last Knight Errant
Summary: What if you knew it would never work out? Would you try again, anyway? What if you knew there was no happy ending in store for you? Is it worth it just for the ride?


**Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, and was filmed in front of an animated studio audience. **

Episode 1 - Here's Ranma (The Strange Stranger from Another Time and Place)

_"That's fine; I don't care! If I can't have a happy ending, I'll settle for none at all..."_  
-

Nerima City. It was a beautiful day in early May; spring was in full bloom, but one of the brief showers that often passed through the special ward had cooled the day's warmth to a merely pleasant glow. Pedestrians ambled along the sidewalks, talking and laughing as they enjoyed the end of the day.

The Sunday afternoon peace was broken as cries and shouts of surprise and fear split the air. "A wild panda! There's a panda on the loose!"

Such sights were rare enough in the jungles of China, where the giant creatures were native; on the streets of a busy Japanese city? People drew back in fear as the creature raced along the street on its hind legs, running as nimbly as any man.

One person didn't react at all; a girl in her late teens, flaming red hair tied back in a pigtail, sat at a table at a sidewalk cafe. She didn't look up from her cup as the beast charged up and stood over her, its paws held above its head as though itching to smash her down.

"Oh, please," she said calmly. "You don't have to be so dramatic about it. It's not my fault it took you this long to catch up." The panda made an annoyed sound, somewhere between a growl and a groan.

"Why don't you have a seat, and we'll talk about this like civilized people?" She gestured at the chair across from her with her tea cup; the panda's eyes narrowed behind the incongruous spectacles perched on the end of its muzzle. After a moment, it pulled out the chair and perched delicately on it, the wrought iron squealing and deforming slightly under its massive weight.

The girl took another sip from her tea cup, then set it aside and folded her hands delicately in front of her. "I understand you made a promise to your friend, and I can see why you're eager to see this fulfilled. But surely you have to realize, with everything that's happened, that now is the worst possible time to do so? It's bad enough that you've decided to arrange my marriage, but trying to push it on me - and whomever I'm supposed to marry - this young will only lead to unhappiness further down the line. Surely you value the happiness of your only child more than that?" She had a slight smile on her lips as she looked up at the panda, her blue eyes glinting slightly in the reddening light of the afternoon sun.

The panda made a flat, whuffing sound.

"Fair enough," she said. "You say you know best. But look at us, right now! One rain storm, and all is undone. Wouldn't we be better off trying to fix this before trying to permanently pair me off with someone? Who would have me, looking like this?" She gestured at herself somewhat wryly, a simple shrug that included her ample bosom, flame red hair, and delicate, pretty features in a motion almost French in its simplicity and elegance.

The panda made that flat sound again.

"Yes, I am talking differently," she agreed. "Call it the voice of experience, old man." She picked up her tea cup again and looked down into its depths, frowning slightly. "You have to know this won't - can't - go as simply as you're saying. Think of all the _other_ suitors you've left behind us over the last ten years. Think of everyone who's looking for us, and how much more likely they are to find us if we settle down in one place. That purple haired psycho from China, or the Kuonji girl, or the Daikokus, and however many other people you sold me to for a bowl of rice and a place to sleep - do you think all those chickens will just keep circling, content to never come home to roost?" She raised a sardonic eyebrow at the panda over the rim of her tea cup. The panda roared and rose on its haunches, knocking its chair backwards. She sighed and set her cup down. "Very well. I tried to be reasonable about this, but you leave me no choice." She stood up and took a deep breath. "Eek! A wild panda bear is attacking! Please, somebody, save me!"

The sophisticated young woman in the red Chinese silk blouse was gone; in her place, a cowering girl, cringing in fear before a rampaging beast. The panda had time for a single whuff of astonishment, blinking at her in perplexion, before a trio of feathered darts sprouted from its back. It turned and looked behind it; the Animal Control officers were frantically reloading their rifles and backpedaling, their approach having gone unnoticed during the strange conversation.

The bear looked back at the girl, who tipped it a wink. It raised a paw to strike at her; the world spun around it. With one finger, she reached out and tipped it over.

"It's your own fault, you know," she told it quietly. "You're the one who taught me that if you can't beat 'em with your fists, you have to get sneaky. But when everything's said and done, this is for the best. If I'd just left you with that kid, Yotaro - but after everything you put me through, why should you get an easy life as a pet? I couldn't let it go, so we both ended up miserable. Consider this my apology - and my forgiveness. You're too valuable to put down. You'll spend the rest of your life being cared for, adored by crowds, and fed all the bamboo you can eat - far from any hot water. So just suck on that, old man."

She plucked the spectacles from its muzzle almost tenderly, and patted its neck as its eyes closed and it slipped off to sleep. Then she picked up her pack and walked away, vanishing into the crowd as the Animal Control officers made their approach, restraints and harnesses in their hands.

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"Good evening," the red-haired girl said calmly to the two women at the door. "Do I have the honour of visiting the Tendo Dojo?"

The taller woman with the longer hair and the yellow apron replied first, with a cheery smile. "You do! I'm Kasumi Tendo. Are you Ranma?" The red haired girl bowed, sharp and perfectly correct.

"I'm Ranma Saotome. I apologize for the inconvenience."

The girl with the shorter hair and the skimpy clothes openly scoffed. "You're Ranma? What the hell kinda son are you supposed to be?"

Kasumi gasped. "Nabiki! Be polite to our guest!"

Ranma smiled, if it could be called that, a purely polite expression as emotional as a doll's. "It's okay; thereby hangs quite a tale. May I come in and meet the rest of your family, please?" The two parted to let her pass between them, Nabiki looking the shorter girl up and down. "And Miss Tendo, may I trouble you to put the kettle on?" "

Of course," Kasumi said. "May I take your pack? Father and our sister Akane are waiting in the living room. Father was just telling us about-" she paused, unsure quite how to phrase it.

"Yes," Ranma nodded. "My father only told me a little while ago as well. I hoped to discuss this with all of you together." She refused Kasumi's offer to take the pack with a short shake of the head and another of those polite smiles, following Nabiki into the living room. Another girl, this one about Ranma's age, and a man in his early fifties were waiting for them by the low table.

"Ranma, my boy! At last!" The man leaped to his feet and threw his arms around the red haired girl. She bore his embrace stoically; after a moment, he recognized something not quite right about the softness pressing against his chest and pushed her back for a closer look. "Wait. You're a - a -"

"A girl, yes." Nabiki poked one of Ranma's breasts sarcastically. "That would certainly explain - HEY!"

Ranma smiled politely yet again and removed her hand from Nabiki's breast. "I'm sorry, I've been in China for some time. I thought this might be a custom of yours."

"You engaged us to a girl?" The third Tendo sister with the long black hair and the karate gi, who must be Akane, had a strident voice, at the moment filled with disbelief that her father could be so careless as to have engaged her or her sisters to another woman.

"I don't understand," Mr. Tendo shook his head, tears starting in his eyes. "Where's Genma? I could have sworn he said he had a son..."

"I'd be happy to explain everything," Ranma said calmly, her voice perfectly pitched to carry over the rising commotion. "If you would just wait a moment." The three stopped bickering and turned to look at her. She seated herself, legs crossed and pack beside her, next to the table. After a moment, they all sat down as well.

"What are we waiting for?" Akane asked.

"Thank you, Miss Tendo," Ranma smiled up at Kasumi as she came in with the kettle on a tray, along with a teapot and some cups. "May I?" She accepted the tray and set it on the table next to her. "As I said, my name is Ranma Saotome..." she lifted the kettle and poured the water over her head. "...the only son of Genma Saotome."

The black-haired boy finished, brushing his wet hair back from his face and putting the kettle back on the tray. All four of the Tendos stared with open mouths, and silence reigned. "Suffice to say, this... condition... is the result of an unfortunate curse, one which has recently claimed my father's freedom, and possibly his life." He said this in such a conversational tone that it took Mr. Tendo a moment to realize just what he meant.

"Oh, no!" The waterfalls of tears that had earlier threatened immediately sprung from his eyes. "My old friend!"

"Oh, how horrible!" Kasumi said. Nabiki merely narrowed her eyes and studied the somewhat handsome boy speculatively.

"And you just... randomly turn into a girl?" Akane said, trying to get a grip on this weird thing that had forced itself into her life.

"Not randomly, no." Ranma didn't look at her. "The curse is activated by cold water. I am restored to normal by hot. It's quite inconvenient, I'm afraid."

"But you're totally normal unless you get wet, right?" Nabiki asked.

"How do you mean normal?" Akane rolled her eyes. Ranma's jaw twitched, but he didn't acknowledge the gibe.

"As Miss Tendo says," he said. "I've been travelling more or less nonstop since I was a child. I have spent my entire life in the singleminded pursuit of my father's goal to perfect the ultimate martial artist. I do not believe the term 'normal' can be applied to anything about me."

"You can say that again," Akane muttered under her breath, leaning back and away from the table.

"That sounds awful, Mr. Saotome." Kasumi had apparently picked up Ranma's formal tone. "But you seem very grown up for your age."

A thin crook of a smile traced across Ranma's features for just a moment, gone almost before it had registered. "As a wise man once said, it's not the years - it's the mileage." He poured water into the teapot as Mr. Tendo got ahold of himself. "

Well," the older man said sadly. "Although my friend may be gone, our dream still endures. Let our two schools be united!" Ranma paused in the process of pouring tea, a brief hesitation, and then he set the pot down.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Tendo. How do you mean?"

"Your father and I promised back when we first started our schools of Anything-Goes Martial Arts that one day, the schools should be united in our children," Mr. Tendo said. "My three daughters: Kasumi, 19; Nabiki, 17; and Akane, 16. Pick the one you want; she's your fiancee."

"He wants Akane," Nabiki said quickly.

"What?" Akane squawked in outrage. "You've got the be kidding me! Why would I-"

"He's perfect for you! You hate boys, right?" She wrapped an arm around Akane's shoulders, and waited for Kasumi to jump in. Her elder sister bit her lip, but didn't say anything, and Nabiki said hurriedly, "Well he's-"

"Half girl," Ranma finished dryly. "That is hardly the basis of a lifelong relationship, Miss Tendo."

"Right!" Akane agreed. "I'm not marrying some gender bending freak of nature!"

Ranma's jaw tightened again, but he merely said, "All three Tendo girls are visions of loveliness, and a man might count himself quite lucky to be blessed with any of you." Before Mr. Tendo could jump in - as he was obviously dying to - Ranma followed up with, "But I'm afraid I have no intentions of marriage at this point in my life. Mr. Tendo, your agreement was with my father, and I do not consider myself bound to it. I hoped that an explanation of my current circumstances might help convince you of my position, but you seem to be... emotionally invested." For Soun Tendo had, once again, begun to weep pitiably. "I'm sorry to have been the bearer of such bad news, and I will regretfully take my leave of you." He stood up and bowed, polite as ever. "I'm sorry we couldn't have met under happier circumstances. Farewell." He lifted up his pack and started to turn away.

Kasumi came to her feet first. "Wait! But with your father gone, where will you go?"

He tilted his head to one side and gave her that slightly crooked smile. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps back to China, to see if I can cure this curse."

"How'd you get that, anyway?" Nabiki didn't bother to stand, but she had snagged a cup of tea and was holding it loosely in her hand.

"It's not much of a story." Almost despite himself, Ranma's hand sneaked up to rub the back of his head, a boyishly sheepish expression that seemed somewhat alien on the mature young man. "My father couldn't read Chinese, and thought that Jusenkyo, the training ground of cursed springs sounded like just the place to help perfect my martial prowess before we returned to Japan. In a manner of speaking, he was right. He just didn't realize what it would cost us."

"What happened to your father?" Akane asked. Soun stopped crying, and looked up with a hopeful expression. Ranma was quiet for a moment, obviously considering his words carefully.

"We were separated shortly after we arrived here. I don't know of his exact fate."

"But he's still alive?" Soun's eyes widened at the prospect of hope.

"It's conceivable." Ranma shrugged slightly.

"You're not going to look for him?" Akane shook her head, her voice filled with the confusion at the prospect of simply giving up a parent.

"I don't intend to, no." Ranma shouldered his pack and turned away again.

"What kind of a son are you?" She spat in disgust. Ranma froze in his tracks.

"When I was two, he took me from my mother on our training journey because he was afraid her love would 'spoil' me. I've neither seen nor heard from her since." He said in a voice pregnant with Arctic chill. "Of course, the way he convinced her to let me go was by promising I would slit my belly and let her cut off my head if I didn't match up to her ideals of machismo, so I guess that's all right, then. I mean, can you imagine what she'd think of me now?

"For nearly fourteen years we wandered Asia. No home. No friends. Training 'exercises' that by any rubric would be considered child abuse - and whenever he went hungry, which was inevitably long after I had already fainted from starvation, he would trade me to the first person with food he could find, and steal me back later. And finally, to top it all off, he takes me to the most cursed place on Earth and sacrifices my masculinity - because he didn't bother to translate the brochure.

"You ask me what kind of son I am, Miss Tendo? The kind who has a father like that." He looked over his shoulder at her, and his eyes dripped with contempt. "You have no concept of what hardship is, Akane Tendo - and I pray to all the gods you never do. I've fulfilled my obligation as a dutiful son to an uncaring, ungrateful father by coming here and swallowing your discourtesies. I'm done now. Goodbye."

The elder Tendos were silent in the face of the verbal smackdown, but Akane had righteous ire on her side and didn't bother to acknowledge it at all. She stabbed an accusing finger at Ranma's back. "In the name of the Tendo School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, I challenge you!" she spat. He stopped in his tracks again and tilted his head to one side, as though listening to a distant voice.

"On what grounds?" he asked, surprisingly calm and polite. "You - and by which, I mean you personally, and not the Tendo family - have been a rude and insulting host. You have done nothing but snarl at me since I arrived. Are you blaming me because our parents decided to marry us without asking first? That seems - childish." He turned on his toe to face her, a blandly polite smile tracing his features although his eyes were still glacial with contempt.

"On the grounds that you're a gigantic jerk who insulted my school!" Akane snapped, eyes flashing. Kasumi opened her mouth to say something, but Mr. Tendo jumped in before she could. Ranma blinked, unsure just where the older gentleman had gotten the karaoke microphone from - or what it was hooked into, for that matter...

"Yes! Akane will challenge Ranma, and if she wins then the schools will be united!"

"Hey," Akane squawked. "I never said I wanted to marry this guy!"

"Sounds like a plan," Nabiki said and jumped to her feet. "To the dojo!"

"I didn't say-" Ranma started, but Nabiki was already in his face, returning his earlier contempt with a smile of her own. "You're a big shot martial artist, right? You can't just turn down a challenge like that! Unless... you're scared of losing?"

Ranma closed his mouth and raised an eyebrow at the middle Tendo sister, then shook his head. "I'm not that easily manipulated, Ms. Tendo." He looked over her head to Akane. "Are these terms acceptable to you, then?"

"Terms?" Things were moving too fast for Akane to process. Although not a stupid girl - far from it, generally - she was somewhat set in her ways, and didn't react well to change. Events were coming at her too fast to process at the moment, and Ranma didn't seem willing to give her the opportunity to catch her breath and get things straight. Ranma! This was all his fault!

"A duel," he said. "You and I; if I lose, I acknowledge that the Tendo school is superior and submit to this engagement. If you lose, then the engagement is null and void and I can depart without further molestation or difficulties." He waited as she mulled it over, then rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Miss Tendo, it's pretty straightforward. You challenged me, remember?"

"Fine!" She snarled. "To the dojo, then, and I'll tear you to pieces!"

They faced each across the dojo floor, Akane with gritted teeth and clenched fists, Ranma with his hands in his pockets and one leg crossing the other. _What am I doing here?_ Akane asked herself, the cold chill of shock slowly trickling down her back. _I don't want to marry this prick. He's a complete arrogant ass - no better than Kuno or any of the rest of those jerks who think they can own me!_ She glared across the boards at him, feeling her anger pooling in her gut like a ball of magma, ready to spew forth and destroy all in its path. Ranma tilted his head to one side and studied her for a moment, and then smiled - just the barest trace of a curve in his lips, just on the one side, more like a smirk than anything else but still far more genuine than anything she'd seen from him thus far.

"You find this amusing, jerk?" She demanded.

"I find this abjectly hilarious," he corrected. "You don't really want to win, do you? You'd like to think you're better than me - you've got so much to prove to yourself - but the fact of the matter is that you're not sure winning would be worth it, really. Hell, you're scared. Can't say I blame you."

"Shut up," she spat. Kasumi and Nabiki took a step backwards, Kasumi reaching out and dragging their father back with them when she realized he didn't have the sense to move.

"This is your own fault," Ranma told her. "I was leaving, remember? No harm, no foul, no chance of getting married. Now you're stuck; damned if you do, damned if you don't. Even when you win, you lose. But don't worry; there's no chance of you winning."

"I said shut up, you jerk!" Still she didn't move.

"Tell ya what, Miss Tendo," his accent had been growing the more he talked, and now he no longer seemed to be that coldly polite, formal young man who had sat by their table. "Ya beat me, and I'll be the best husband this world has ever seen. My hand ta god." He raised his right hand, thumb and pinky tucked in, three fingers upright in promise. "I'll make the Tendo Dojo the finest school in Tokyo - in Japan! Between classes I'll mind the house and the kids, so you can focus on school - and later, work. You'll be, what, an actress? A journalist? Hell, ya got time ta decide. I'll support you through college. I'll be there in the crowd when you graduate, sniffling in pride. And you'll never, never, never know that I don't actually love you, or that I'm stuck in this because of a stupid bet we made when we were kids." He smirked and gave her a come hither gesture with the hand that had just been saluting. "All ya gotta do is beat me; come on, darlin'. I'm right here askin' for it."

"I said, shut _UP!_" she lunged forward, spinning into a roundhouse kick. He wasn't there when her foot swept through at head height, but it had only been a feint, after all; she followed it up with a blistering series of punches, missing the taller boy as he swayed back and forth like a leaf on the wind half a step ahead of her. He was faster - amazingly fast, inhumanly fast. She feinted again, then lunged at him with all of her strength - putting all of her injured pride and anger into a devastating punch that smashed through the dojo wall as though it were made of tissue paper. Behind her, she felt a light tap as Ranma touched down from his amazing flip over her head and poked her.

"Hm. Guess you didn't want it that much, eh?" She spun around and struck at him again, fists moving like lightning. Ranma ducked under them, his hands lightly tapping her arms aside - and then ignoring her wide open torso to spin away again, putting distance between them. _He's running_, she thought for just a heartbeat and then caught a glimpse of her father's face from her peripheral vision. Pinched lips, pale cheeks, and most damning of all the shining tracks as waterfalls of tears poured across his stubbled face. A nagging little voice in the back of her head whispered that she didn't stand a chance, that trying to continue on this course was foolhardy and that she was only embarrassing herself - chasing after a boy she didn't even want in the first place! But that look of despair in Soun Tendo's eyes, the worry on Kasumi's face, only fanned the flames of rage in her breast all the higher. Akane Tendo was the uncrowned Queen of Furinkan High School and the acknowledged heir to the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. So what if this boy had been training in China? So what if he'd been on a training trip since before he could walk? She was Akane Tendo; she never surrendered, and she never lost. She gathered her focus, tightening that knot of anger in her chest down to a hard, hot ball and drawing strength from it.

"Why don't you try me for real," she spat. Ranma grinned and toed at the ground with one foot, looking away from her in calculated disinterest.

"Aw, shucks 'Kane," he drawled. "I'd hate to hurt ya or somethin'." She didn't bother to reply, but launched herself forward with a series of jabs, sharp and fast. Rather than dodge around them as she'd expected, he parried each shot with one hand, blocking like her punches were soft as feathers. She tried to grab his arm, but he smacked her hand away with a sharp slap she couldn't even see. He kept backing away and she kept pursuing, trying to keep her footwork tight and close so he wouldn't catch her off balance again. He suddenly counterattacked, hands flicking at her face and forcing her to jerk her head back - he smirked at her as he kicked backwards and slid the door to the dojo open, then continued backing away.

She couldn't understand why he was leaving the dojo, but she followed him out into the open air, taking advantage of the extra room to try another roundhouse kick. Too slow; he caught her leg and slapped her knee, stinging but hardly incapacitating. He flashed her that cocky grin again, and she felt her control over her anger slipping.

"Tell ya what," he said. "You try your best to hit me, and I'll give you my best attack in return. I will defeat you - conclusively, definitively, and without any possible opportunity for you to retaliate - and I will only use one finger." He grinned again, spreading his arms to take in the garden around them, and then he spread his legs and held up his right index finger. "Or you can quit now, and save yourself some pain. Suit yourself." She spread her feet shoulder width apart and clenched her fists in front of her.

"You don't take me seriously," she hissed.

"Why would I?" His voice lacked the earlier mocking note it had held earlier. "You're not bad, for a high school girl - but c'mon, Akane Tendo. I eat, sleep, and breathe martial arts. Every thing I do is training. I could kick almost before I could walk. I could punch through a brick wall before I hit puberty. You run around the block every morning, break a few cinder blocks in the dojo, and beat up some horny teenagers at school. There's no contest here. Just call it off, and we can call it square."

"I won't," she said in a flat, calm voice. "I won't give up. I won't lose to some cocky, smarmy, arrogant, jerk-face _boy_!" She launched herself at him, leading foot first. He spun away from her, but as soon as she touched down she pressed him harder - punch, kick, stomp - an unbroken string of attacks, too ferocious for him to counter even if he had been willing to attack her with anything more potent than a finger. He kept backing away, that mocking smile still firmly pasted across his face.

"That's your issue, huh? Don't like boys much? Maybe it would be better if I'd stayed as a girl when I got here, right? That the kind of thing that float yer boat, Akane Tendo? Big breasts and long legs, someone you can be bigger and stronger than? Bet you wouldn't have objected so much to the engagement if you thought you could have my girl side all to yourself." Akane went dead white, and then firetruck red.

On the sidelines, Nabiki's eyes went wide and she and Soun quickly took several steps back out of the line of fire, huddling in the door to the dojo. As one, they reached out and grabbed Kasumi's shoulders to pull her back under cover with them.

Ranma looked her up and down, then shrugged. "Yeah, let's be honest; you'd make a pretty good guy. I mean, you're halfway there already." He tilted his head to one side. "You're not packing anything extra under that gi, are you? Besides hips the size of a dumptruck and tits the size of oranges, right?" An infernal corona of blue flames surrounded Akane Tendo. Ranma continued to slide back and to the side as she swung wild haymakers at his head, too enraged to remember her coordinated attacks. Victory was forgotten; if she got her hands on him, the only thing that could result was brutal, bloody murder. He was always just a half step ahead of her, barely out of reach - she could feel him, an inch ahead of her grasp, and she followed blindly, ignoring the burning in her limbs or the ache in her chest as she grew tired, fueled by her rage.

Soun's eyes narrowed as he realized Ranma was leading her in circles, for all the world satisfied to keep her running around after him like a dog on a chain, wrapping itself tighter and tighter around its pole...

"He screwed up," Nabiki said softly. "Any second now, he's going to run out of room-"

"Time to finish the game, Miss Tendo," Ranma said - barely audible over Akane's wordless snarl of rage. He stopped dead in his tracks as she lunged and, before her hands could close on his neck, he brought his hand up and flicked her in the nose.

The garden exploded in a whirlwind centered on the two fighters; but where Ranma stood, arm outstretched and finger raised as though declaring himself number one, Akane was flung high into the air, her howl of anger rapidly shifted to a scream of sheer terror. Ranma posed for a moment, head bowed, and then stood straight. "I win," he told the Tendo clan. "There will be no marriage."

They stared at him, open mouthed. He raised his arm again, three fingers raised; then two; then one; and then he deftly caught Akane as she dropped, straight into his hand. She hung limply as he lowered his arm and turned on his heel, holding her like an oversized rag doll.

"I'll tuck her into bed and see myself out."

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Akane gasped and sat upright. A quick glance around reassured her that she was back in her room, tucked under her covers; her yellow gi was in a heap by the door. She looked under her covers and blushed as she realized she was in her underwear; Kasumi must have put her to bed after-

She felt the blood rush from her cheeks, leaving her ghostly pale, as she recalled how easily Ranma had beaten her. With one finger! She gnawed at her fist as she remembered how the mocking smile he'd taunted her with through the entire duel had turned to a serious, sorrowful look just before he'd flicked her in the nose, as though she were a misbehaving puppy.

Movement from by her desk drew her attention and she gasped as Ranma sat upright and rubbed his eyes.

"Oh, good," he said with a vague smile. "You're awake."

"You - you - " She clutched her covers up around her neck, eyes wide. He shrugged.

"Yeah, me. Ranma Saotome, still undefeated, still beautiful." He flashed her a V with his fingers, grinning broadly. "You're welcome, by the way."

"What." Akane's fists spasmed on her covers, her fingers cracking with the force of her grip.

"Well, think about it Akane, you didn't really wanna get married to somebody you'd never met before, right? Especially not a giant jerkass like me." She opened her mouth and paused, not entirely sure how to answer that. On the one hand, he was right; on the other hand, she'd sooner drink hemlock than admit it.

Ranma leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, not looking at her. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for all of the insults I threw at you during our fight. I needed you to be furious for that technique to work, and the best way to do that was to insult you until you blew your top. Anything Goes means exactly that." He pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers. "I'm hoping maybe - just once - you'll listen to me. You've got the makings of a fantastic martial artist - but you've got a real life, too, which is something I never had. The art demands sacrifice and devotion, not of words but deeds. If you don't dedicate yourself to it one hundred percent, you'll never achieve your potential - but that's not really a bad thing, is it? You've got a life here, Akane, friends and family who care about you. You go to school, you see movies, you hang out on weekends. I've got the road and the art; the closest thing I have to friends are people who want to kill me."

"I'm not surprised," Akane muttered. She wasn't entirely sure she didn't still want to kill him, after all. Ranma shrugged again, unrepentant.

"Yeah, well, so it goes." He stood up. "Anyway, your pops is gonna be pretty torn up about the marriage not workin' out. I'd apologize for that, but seriously - can you picture us, married?" She looked at him, in his bloused pants and his red silk tunic, that cocky grin on his face and his blue eyes flashing with good humour, and bit her lip. "Maybe we'll meet again someday." He opened the window and slipped his leg out.

"You're - you're leaving? Just like that?" She couldn't help but ask, the question all but forcing itself from between her lips.

"I only stuck around to make sure you were okay," he said. "Your dad hasn't stopped bawling his eyes out since the fight, and I'm pretty sure if she knew I was still here Nabiki would have figured out a way to charge me rent on your desk chair."

"But where will you go? Are you really heading back to China?"

He looked distant for a moment, staring out the window as though he could across the trackless miles to the far distant Bayankala Mountains in the Qinghai Province. "I dunno." He grinned, so fast a careless eye would have missed it. "I've been out of the world for a spell. Like to walk it a while."

"I would have thought you'd have had enough of walking by now," Akane said, too tired and drained to be confused at anything the strange boy said anymore.

"Everything is training, right? See you around, Akane Tendo."

He slipped out the window and was gone into the night. Akane sat there for a moment, staring after him, and then realized it was getting chilly in her room and she was going to have to come out from under her nice warm covers to close the window after him.

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Akane Tendo sleepwalked through school all day, nothing penetrating the haze around her. Beating the Hentai Horde that rushed her in the morning, dozens of panting boys all eager to beat her up so they could claim the honor of dating her; she barely registered as they fell before her fists, her mind filled with the mocking image of the pigtailed boy from China. Kuno spouting poetry and flinging roses around in a pallid mockery of romance; she walked by him before he could challenge her to a duel, leaving him sputtering in her wake without an audience. Her teacher, droning like summertime cicadas; not an impression on the fugue that filled her head.

She didn't feel anything at all, in fact, until she was on her way home and spotted a tent pitched under the bridge across the canal.

It could have been anyone; it wasn't an uncommon spot for travelers, down on their luck and empty of wallet, to set up camp. The police usually turned a blind eye, as long as they picked up after themselves, didn't stay too long, and didn't hassle the locals. Nerima had always been a gathering point for the weird, so the more harmless a stranger, the less likely he was to draw attention. There was nothing to garner her attention, but somehow, the sight of the little dome tent - a nondescript olive green, like thousands of others - drew her like a beacon. When she got close enough to see the little fire, carefully banked and tended so it threw up almost no smoke at all, and the black haired teenager sitting next to it, she knew why she'd come.

"I thought you were leaving," she managed to get out through gritted teeth.

Ranma looked up at her with a smile of pleased surprise. "Oh, hello Akane Tendo," he said. "May I offer you a cup of tea?" He was heating a small kettle over his equally small fire, and it took an active effort of will for her not to lunge forward and kick it in his face.

"Why are you still here?" She asked instead, stopping short and glaring at him.

He shrugged and rubbed the back of his head. "You know, I didn't put a whole lot of thought into it last night," he said. "But I really don't have anyplace else to go. Pops is gone, I haven't seen Mom in a decade or so, and swimming back to China seems a bit much just now. I mean, I was all dead set on it when we got here, but it's kind of a long way, you know? I figured maybe I'd stick around for a little while, work up a nest egg, maybe see what life in Japan is like. It's been some time."

Akane's jaw worked as she mulled that over, and finally she nodded and took a seat across from him. He poured hot water into a tin cup and studied its contents closely. "

You're the best martial artist I've ever seen," she said at last. "I know," he replied without looking up. She gritted her teeth again, fists clenching at the unembellished confidence in his voice - the plain and simple acceptance of fact. He was not only the best martial artist she _had_ seen; he was the best martial artist she _would_ see, ever. She wanted to punch him right in that smug, handsome, stupid face of his.

Instead, she took a deep breath and said, "I want you to teach me." He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. "Daddy..." She let her breath escape through her teeth in a slow whistle, trying to find the words. "We spar maybe once a week, if he thinks of it. He doesn't try to hit me. I fight - a lot - at school, but they aren't a challenge. They were at first, a bit, but nothing's really changed; they charge at me, I hit them, they go down. There's one guy, an upperclassman, who's really good, but he does the same thing. Like you said last night, I break bricks and I run around the block. I'm not learning anything. I'm not improving." She smoothed the front of her dress self consciously, not willing to look at Ranma but feeling those blue eyes resting on her face like chips of ice. "I'm a martial artist, too, you know." It felt weak, like a summer breeze trying to tell a tornado that it was a storm, too.

"I'm the heir to the Tendo School of Anything Goes. I need to be able to stand up for my school if we're challenged, and right now..."

"Right now, you've been beaten, and you can't stand feeling like you lost to a boy," Ranma finished.

She glared at him. "It's not just losing to a _boy_," she spat. "It's losing to _you_. You beat me - in front of my family - in my own garden - and you did it with one finger."

"I did it with knowledge," he leaned back and sipped his tea. "I told you before we got into it that I knew more than you - that I studied longer, harder, and lived the life. You've got a lot of potential, Miss Tendo, but you are still a teenage girl."

"So you think I can't learn because I'm a girl?" She felt her face get hot and gritted her teeth to fight it back.

"That's not what I said." His voice started to rise, and she could almost feel him throw the reins on his own temper to hold it back. His voice slipped into that exaggerated chill with which he'd spat insults at her the night before, and it dawned on her that he was using some sort of mental technique to push himself into that exaggerated calm.

"Miss Tendo, for you to be as good a martial artist as I am would require an investment of time and concentration equal to that which I've expended. My entire life, practically from birth and right up to this moment." He looked at his cup and then set it aside, all but jumping to his feet so he could start pacing back and forth in front of her. "Every martial artist near my level has been the same, they've given up friends, family, hobbies, any vestige of a normal life to dedicate themselves to the Art." She could hear the capital letter in the word as he turned to look at her, his face alight with passion even as that exaggerated chill still clung to his words. "Is that really what you want to do? Give yourself entirely to the road, studying ancient scrolls by the light of a campfire, practicing the same movements over and over by a raging sea until your muscles cramp and your body is so tired you can't even lift the chopsticks to fight off your father as he steals your rice from in front of you?" She blinked at him slowly, and he coloured slightly. "You get what I'm saying. It's not because you're a girl - hell, some of the best martial artists I've known have been girls. It's because you're not focused on the Art."

"So I'll get focused," she said, standing to match him. "I'll quit school, I'll leave home, I'll study until I'm actually worthy to inherit the dojo."

"And leave behind your father and your sisters?" The thought hit her like a blunt instrument. She could just picture her father's tears at the thought of losing one of his little girls; Kasumi's disappointed look as her little sister left for the road. She wondered how her mother would feel, were she still there to see her baby give up her home for a life of aimless wandering. She opened her mouth to answer, hesitated, tried again. The words didn't want to come, and she realized she wasn't entirely sure herself just what words those would be.

Ranma rubbed his chin in speculation. "Okay," he said.

"What?" She looked at him.

"I said okay," he repeated. "I'll train you. For one year. At the end of the year we'll - we'll duel again, you and I. If you're willing to dedicate yourself enough to be a challenge to me after a year of training, then I'll stick around." He slammed his fist into his palm and nodded.

"There have to be stakes," she heard herself say. "Or a duel doesn't mean anything."

He stared at her in naked surprise, and then laughed. "That's true," he agreed. "I hope you're not planning on another engagement duel, though."

Her cheeks flashed red again. "I didn't want the first one!"

"Well, that's two of us." He grinned. "Let's say... if you win, or convince me of your dedication, then I'll continue to train you. And if you lose, I'll leave. Simple enough?"

She nodded, and held out her hand. "Shake on it."

He blinked again, then laughed. "Okay." They shook, his grip firm as his hand engulfed hers. She abruptly felt tiny next to him, and couldn't let go of his hand fast enough.

"We have a spare room at my house," She said after a moment of silence. "We can use the dojo to train."

"Gods and little fishes, no," he said with open disgust. "Your dad will try to push us together every chance he gets, we'd never have a moment's peace. And besides, I wasn't joking about the kind of craziness my life attracts - you're better off without me that close to you. I'll stay here for now."

"It's gonna get cold, come winter," Akane predicted.

Ranma shrugged. "I've got time until then. I'll see about getting a part-time job or something, maybe get an apartment."

"What about school?"

"You can keep going; I'll work around it. And it's not like I need it." He smirked slightly, as though laughing at a joke only he could hear. Irritation stirred in her breast again, the type that came only too easily whenever he opened his mouth, and this time she didn't bother to fight it back.

"That's not true! You're not stupid, Ranma, but you can't just let your brains go to waste like that! I know you've dedicated everything to martial arts, and I know you're right when you say that I haven't given enough - but there's a line there. You have to make room for something else in your life, or you're going to spend the rest of it just like this, camped out under bridges. You'll never go to college, you'll never have an actual job, and you'll never have a real life!"

"Well, jeez, if you feel that strongly about it..." He muttered, rubbing at the back of his head again. "I just think - I mean, you've got the brains, obviously," Her voice trailed off as she realized just how loud her voice had gotten.

"Okay, okay." He laughed and held his hands up. "I'll start at Furinkan tomorrow, with you and Nabiki." He straightened, and added in a more serious tone, "But on my terms, Miss Tendo. And we'll begin your training in earnest."

"How do you mean that?" She narrowed her eyes at him.

He raised a finger. "First lesson, my pupil, trust in your teacher." He looked up at the sky. "Hey, shouldn't you be getting on home? Kasumi's going to worry about you if you're not there soon."

She blinked. "You're right. So... I'll see you at school tomorrow, then?" "

Yeah," he nodded and grinned. "I'll see you there." It wasn't until she was taking her shoes off in the front hall that it occurred to her to wonder how Ranma had known what school she and Nabiki went to, or that Kasumi would be expecting her home immediately after school. She frowned for a moment, then shook her head. She would have to ask him tomorrow, not to mention warn him about the Hentai Horde and Upperclassman Kuno...

—-end Chapter One.

A/N: So here we go again, with everyone's favorite sex changing martial artist arriving in Nerima. Next time; Akane's training begins, we meet Tatewaki Kuno and the Hentai Horde, and - Ranma! Are you going to school in_ a dress?!_


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